Frances can no longer sleep through the sound of a single dog bark, but doesn’t wake up after vomiting all over herself? Motherhood is full of surprises!

This morning Franci awoke at her usual time with her usual smile and giggle, accompanied by a little surprise for her dad: a huge pile of dry vomit. At some point in the night, she had puked in the crook of her arm while on her stomach. The dried chunks covered her face and hair, and her sleep sack and pajamas were cold and damp. Whatever made her sick worked it’s way out of both ends, because her diaper was in a similar state of affairs.(more…)

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was planning to pick up the pace on using baby sign language. I finally found the book I was looking for when I cleaned house, and I’m glad I did!

The Baby Signing Book by Sara Bingham is a great resource that I’d recommend to anyone wanting to use ASL with their kids. The book starts out with instructions on how to introduce sign language to your baby. The following sections are geared toward young babies, older babies and toddlers.

Bingham includes strategies and “teaching moments” as well as “Notes from a signing parent”. All of these additions helped me get excited about signing with Frances. She encourages you to use as few, or as many, signs as you’re comfortable with, and I appreciated her low-stress approach.(more…)

Frances’ “bad behavior” started off with hair pulling and nipple biting. A stern “NO” and forcing her to release the hair (or nipple) still results in a giggle and a big smile.

Like all babies, she loves computers. If she’s sitting on my lap while I type, she struggles in my arms to reach for the keyboard. Moving her farther away, or removing the keyboard from her path, results in a meltdown.

Now that Frances is crawling, she’s getting herself into a lot more trouble. We’re more into “house-proofing” the baby than “baby-proofing” the house, but parenting books don’t seem to get into the “how-to’s” of accomplishing that. I’ve read different ideas on correcting “wrong” behavior, and I’m curious to hear what our readers have found to be successful.(more…)

As I mentioned in last week’s post, we’ve been having success with infant potty training. One of the best investments we made when starting out was the BabyBjorn Smart Potty. At $15, it’s paid for itself in saved diapers and loads of laundry.

As you can see, Frances loves to sit on it. I think some times she holds it in, just so she can sit there longer playing patty cake and looking around. Before she could sit on her own, I would hold Frances over it, one hand on her back and the other holding her feet. We even bought one to keep over at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.(more…)

Although I wasn’t ready to let my baby run free without a diaper at all, I wanted to give infant potty training a try. As they say, it really is “parent training”. I have to make sure to put Franci on the potty when I think she needs to go. We started at about 4 weeks, and it didn’t take her long to get the idea. I enjoyed the communication that passed between us, and it felt like one of the only things we could “do together” at that point.(more…)

Frances and I are hitting the skies again, for a much longer flight this time. On our last trip, our time with the Transportation Security Officers was extended because they just couldn’t identify the Lansinoh Wipes through the X-ray machine. After running our diaper bag three times, they did a hand search and then re-ran both the bag and the wipes.

This time I’m planning to bring some breast milk along because I’m not sure I’ll be able to pump enough before we leave Franci with her cousins for the evening. It might not be necessary, but I want to be sure I have enough for her. Considering my past luck with TSA, I’m a little worried this won’t go smoothly.(more…)

When Frances first started on solids and her eliminations began to change, I remember thinking, “well, this isn’t too bad”. I take it all back! Of course it wasn’t too bad when all she ate was a few bites of fruit or avocado.

Flushable Liners

Thankfully we use cloth diapers and can use disposable liners when we expect her to poop. If she does poop in the cloth diaper, we use a sink sprayer installed in the bathroom to rinse the diaper out. Sink sprayers are a fourth of the price of the equivalent diaper sprayer, by the way. Check out Rebecca’s post on Diaper Sprayers for more information.(more…)

Lately our “date nights” have included Frances, especially now that she’s eating solid foods and is easily entertained at restaurants. The last time we went out to dinner alone, Frances’ bedtime was pretty late and we got home before her last feeding.

Now Franci’s bedtime routine starts at 7pm and she is asleep by 8pm. By routine I mean she nurses for 40 minutes, I change her diaper and put on her pj’s, and then she nurses herself to sleep in the next 15 minutes. I would love to go out on a date with my husband and come home to a sleeping baby, but I’m not sure how to go about that.(more…)

While we were at the pediatrician’s for Frances’ six month checkup, I was surprised to hear from the nurse that we’re the only patients on Dr. Sears’ alternative vaccination schedule. Although we don’t live in a metropolis, I would have thought there would be at least one other child on an alternative plan.

Since we’ve been in to see the nurse twice as often as most, she was curious about our choice. She asked about our reasons for choosing an alternate schedule, and my knee-jerk answer was “why not?”. The nurse said she liked the fact that the shots, two at the most, were over so quickly Frances hardly noticed them. Even the gals in reception have said, “your baby never cries for shots! She must be so brave.” Well, they’re over so quickly she doesn’t know what hit her. She’s never had a fever after vaccinations and, I will admit, I enjoy twice as many days where she takes extra long naps!(more…)